Story+1985-01-08+Indianapolis,+IN

´´Thanks....we´re gonna....it´s gonna be a long show tonight, you guys ought to sit down for a while if you want, we´re gonna playing a long time....this is a song....they say the safeguard of democracy is....an educated citizen, this is a song about blind faith....and its tragic consequences....”
 * 08.01.85 Indianapolis, IN, intro to ´Reason to Believe´**

´´Thank you, this is uh....a song, uh....guess it was in the late 70´s, I was....I was driving through Phoenix, Arizona....and uh....I stopped in this drugstore and I was looking for a book to read....and I found this book called Born on the Fourth of July....by....by a Vietnam Veteran named Ron Kovic....and uh....I guess it was his story about coming home and the things he found when he got back here....this is called ´Shut Out the Lights´, it´s a song about coming home....”
 * 08.01.85 Indianapolis, IN, intro to ´Shut Out the Light´**

´´Thanks....this is, uh....Elvis´ 50th birthday today....and uh....I guess everybody....everybody kind of has events....and things in their lives...that they mark their lives by....like I always remember being nine years old and.....and watching the Ed Sullivan Show, my mother had it on and I seen Elvis first come on, you know...I remember I went out and tried to....got a guitar....rented a guitar and I tried to take guitar lessons but my hands were too small....but uh.....(?) right now on, uh.....on that HBO, they got that show ´One Night With You´, which is, uh....from Elvis´ ´68 Special´, it´s....it´s like, I guess it´s gotta be like the best he ever was .....he sounds so great on that thing, if you get a chance to catch it, it´s really...something worth seeing....and uh....I remember....I remember how....how kind of lonely I felt when a friend of mine called up and told me that he´d died....it was hard to....hard to understand.... how somebody who seemed....like they had all their dreams in their hands....could´ve ended up....so lonely....but uh....anyway, this is a song called ´Bye Bye Johnny´....and....he deserved a lot better than he got in the end....and may you all live to be....a very ripe old age ....”
 * 08.01.85 Indianapolis, IN, intro to ‘Johnny Bye Bye’**

´´Well, now this song....is a song about old times....it´s nostalgic and all that kind of stuff (chuckles)....see, the older you get, the more old times you´ve got....I´m getting up to around where I got my share....but now Clarence, he´s got more than me....but as you can see, he has maintained his youthful beauty....some of us are lucky (chuckles)....anyway, this is about how you go out on a Friday night....but patricularly around New Year´s, everybody´s so sentimental around New Year´s....you know, people, like, you couldn´t stand to see the rest of the year, you know, like on New Year´s you´re kind of nice to ´em a little bit...(?).... everybody gets all teary-eyed and stuff, anyway, I was sitting in this bar, there´s always somebody that comes up to me and goes ´Oh, Bruce, Bruce, remember me ? I went to high school with you´ ´Oh yeah ?´ ´Yeah, remember me ? Bobby ? the guy, remember, remember the lunchroom, the guy with the pizza pie ? You know, put, it went all over your shirt ? remember that ? that´s me, yeah ! how you doing, how you doing ?´ (chuckles) everybody keeps telling you what a great time you had in high school and stuff....well, like, I remember like I hated high school....I couldn´t stand no high school....still every night around 8 o´clock I wait for somebody to tap me on my shoulder, take my guitar and tell me to go back and do my homework.....anyway....in high school I was only interested in two things....I was telling these people last night, now, one was the guitar....and the other one....was, uh, uh, uh.....that one, yeah (chuckles) but anyway....of the two, as I matured, the only one I excelled at was the guitar....I always tell everybody that´s why the show´s so long ´cause the other thing happens so fast all the time....but anyway, like my New Year´s Eve resolution that was like to practise so if there´s any volunteers....who´ve had practise, I wanna get it down perfect, you gotta have some patience though (chuckles) oh, in the end, all things must pass, and they do mighty fast, let me tell you (chuckles) and you´re left with nothing but glory days.....”
 * 08.01.85 Indianapolis, IN, intro to ´Glory Days´**

´´Thanks.....around 19....82, I guess, I was living for a while in California....and I was....kind of thinking back to....the town that I´d grown up in, what it was like now, what had happened to it....and uh....I guess everybody kind of ends up with a love-hate-relationship with the place that they were raised in....I know when I was about 16, I always say it was probably mostly hate (chuckles) I couldn´t wait to get out of town, I used to jump on the....was a Lincoln Transit bus to New York City all the time....where I could breathe....breathe a little freer up there....and uh.....but as I got older, I started to go back, when I came home, I started to go back there more, I´d drive through at night, I´d go visit some of my old friends, see what they were doing,what their lives were like.....and uh, I guess I started to realise that forever there´d always be a part of me there....and that when I was a kid, one of the things I was afraid of was belonging to something....because when you say, when you admit that you belong to something that means you´ve got some responsobility there....if you say ´Well, I´m an American´ that means you´ve got some responsobility to the country that you live in....and uh....this is, uh, I love America, I guess....but there´s a lot of things here that could be a lot better, there´s a lot, there´s things to be proud of and there´s things to be ashamed of....like right here in Indiana you´ve got 600,000 people that are still living below the poverty line.... and tonight when you go out into the lobby you´re gonna see some folks from the (?) Foodbank of Indiana....now, what a foodbank is is every year in America 20 percent of the food that gets produced gets either wasted or thrown away and meanwhile in every city, in every state there´s people going hungry, there´s kids that are undernourished, there´s old folks whose social security checks ain´t getting ´em through the month and what a foodbank does is it tries to collect up all that food and get it to the agencies that are out there serving the people.....but uh.....they can use your help, they can use your support....so when you go out there into the lobby during intermission, you ought to check ´em out, if you can spare a dollar or a couple of bucks or if you can spare some time, some volunteer time in their warehouses.....this is uh.....sometimes hunger seems like it´s just happening someplace a long ways away but it´s not, it´s happening every day right here in your hometown....”
 * 08.01.85 Indianapolis, IN, intro to ´My Hometown´**

´´This is for any of you old-timers out there....who can remember 1973....you see, once upon a time....in a land east of here.... (....) Well, there I was....I was still in high school but I wasn´t doing too good....I was doing bad in my studies....getting in trouble, I wasn´t paying attention in class....I used to daydream all the time....you know, I´d be sitting there looking out the window, they used to call me ´The Dreamer´....but they sent me down to the guidance counsellor...so I went in....he said ´Mr.Springsteen....what´s your problem ?´....I said ´Well....you see, I´m not doing so good, Sir, like I don´t know what I´m gonna do with myself, I don´t know what I wanna be, I don´t know, I don´t know what I wanna do with my life, I need some faith, like, I need some hope, I need....I need....I need a date for Saturday night or something, I don´t know´....he said ´I don´t know....that´s too big a problem for me, Son, you better go home and talk to your folks´....so I went home, walked in the kitchen, my father was sitting at the kitchen table....I said ´Dad, I got something real important I gotta talk to you about.....like, I don´t know what I gonna do with myself, I´m getting in trouble in school, I don´t know what I wanna do with my life, I don´t know what I wanna be, there´s nothing I´m interested in, you know, it´s, uh.... I need like some, I need some faith in someplace, I need some hope, I need, I need.....a close interpersonal relationship with a member of the opposite sex for a little while or something ! ´ ....and he just looked at me and he said ´Get me another beer out of the icebox´....so that was it....I decided I was gonna do myself in....got out on highway 33, decided I was gonna go down to the ocean and jump in and drown myself (boos) had to be done, that´s all (chuckles) so I hitchhiked down into Asbury Park.....like I had this phony I.D at the time so I decided before I´d kill myself I was gonna stop and get a drink first....so....I went into this little bar, went into the men´s room and on the wall it said ´Advice and answer to all problems, big or small´ and it had a phone number so I got a dime, went outside, put it in the phonebooth.... phone rang once....rang twice....and I heard (Clarence: ´Hello´)....and it was some guy called Clarence ´He-who-knows-all´ Clemons on the other end of the line....and like I told him what my problem was and he said he thought he could help me out so he gave me his address and I hitchhiked over to his house.....knocked on the door....door opened up....we checked each other out....we decided that we´d make a good team, yeah.....and Clarence, he was having some problems of his own but he had just been to the gypsy and he´d bought this map to the secret of the world....and he said if we followed this map at midnight when the moon was full, on a Halloween night....that we´d find the answer to all our problems....so that night we got in Clarence´s Oldsmobile and we started driving south....south down Route 9, through Freehold, through Tom´s River, through Lakewood, down south deep into the pines and it started raining....and then hailstones big as grapefruits came down....and then a blizzard came up and hit us....and then we got hit by a heatwave....and then a tornado came scooting across the highway and then the roof blew off the car, we had two flat tires, the engine block cracked, the carburator flew off, the horn got stuck, the gas pedal got stuck and then we got hit by a hurricane hit.....and then there we were.....parked by the side of this dirt road....and according to the map what we were looking for was just on the other side of those woods.... so into the forest we went....it was spooky in there.....it was dark....we came upon this big shade tree.....we could tell it was a shade tree because it had its shades on....and then deeper into the forest we went.....and all of a sudden we heard sounds like werewolves (crowd howls) we heard lions roaring (crowd roars) we heard homicidal cows mooing (?)(crowd moos) we heard mad dogs barking (crowd barks) now, Big Man, there ain´t no like, there ain´t no wild beasts in New Jersey, is there ? I´ve never heard of nobody like getting, getting ate alive in New Jersey or anything.....I don´t think so.....I think I hear something behind us, I think I hear something behind us....I think, I think I hear something behind us somewhere (?)....whooa ! and all of a sudden there was this big man-eating bear but, but instead of jumping on us and making us his dinner, he was acting kind of friendly....and he said, he said that he wasn´t mean, that he was just lonely....that he´d been out in these woods for a real long time, that he ran away from the circus where they was keeping him in all these cages.... and that if we´d be his buddies, he´d help us find what we were looking for....and I could tell by the way he wore his hat that he was smarter than the average bear....and we made a deal with him and he took us back to the woods.....and all of a sudden.....the clouds pulled away from the moon....and in the clearing....we saw a light the answer to our quest.....and we stood there in the clearing.....and we knew everything was gonna be all right....because...because.... when we touched....”
 * 08.01.85 Indianapolis, IN, intro to ´Growin´Up´**

´´I remember it was, it was right around the end of the summer....there was this strip just down off the river where people from town....it was like a junkyard....people from town´d bring the things that they didn´t want any more, leave ´em there to rust away....and there was this little spot in the middle of all these cottonwood trees where we used to meet and that´s where I first met her....and....you know, when we first started going out, it was like, uh....I guess it was like it always is when you first start going out....always having fun all the time, laughing all the time....but then, uh, it seemed like the things, as time went by, the things that made her happy once just didn´t make her happy any more....and I was spending most of my time....trying to figure out how to make her happy again....and uh, it got to where we stopped talking....and she stayed at home all the time....then she got to hiding my keys so I couldn´t take the car out at night....and.....I don´t know what it was, maybe sometimes people, people, they expect too much from each other....you meet somebody....and you think that they´re gonna take away all your loneliness, you´re never gonna feel like that ever again....but in the end I guess, nobody can take away all your loneliness, you just hope that you find somebody that you can share it with someplace.....that´s not so bad.....that´s not so bad..... (....) Well, that was the night that we left....just packed our bags....we don´t know where we´re going yet....but I guess that´ll come in time....but sometimes it seems like time gets running so short on you....like it´s gonna run out on you....you gotta keep running....and there´s not much you can do, I guess....but to keep going....and to keep searching.....and to keep going....and to keep going....and to keep going.....and to keep on going....”
 * 08.01.85 Indianapolis, IN, intro to ´Racing in the Street´**

´´I´d like to....just take a second and thank, thank all you folks for coming down to the shows we did here in Indianapolis, thank you.....I wanna let you know that we appreciate all you guys I know that have waited out in line for a long time for tickets, must´ve been cold....I´d like to thank you for your support of the (?) Foodbank of Indiana also....and....I guess this being Elvis´ birthday, I think, one of the biggest lessons that, uh....I think that he showed everybody was....was that one person can make a real big difference....how...how you´re not, you´re not powerless to change, to change some of the bad things in the world....and uh.... just takes a little sticking together ´cause remember in the end....nobody wins unless everybody wins....”
 * 08.01.85 Indianapolis, IN, intro to ´Born To Run´**

//Compiled by : Johanna Pirttijärvi//